Photo By Kimberly Hackbarth | Staff Sgt. Terrance Mackey, an air and missile defense crewmember with Battery B, 1st...... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas – Sometimes, a shift in occupational priorities for the Army gives Soldiers the option to switch out of jobs that are either no longer necessary, or are overstrength.
If a Soldier chooses to pursue a different job, or military occupational specialty (MOS), he or she goes through job reclassification and attends training to learn a new occupation.
As the air defense artillery branch continues to grow and change, it has given Soldiers with the MOS 14S, air and missile defense crew member, an opportunity to reclassify to the MOS 14T, Patriot launching station enhanced operator/maintainer.
Instead of traveling to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where the 10-week training is normally held, Soldiers from 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade participated in a three-week, 14T mobile training team (MTT) course, Jan. 16 through Feb. 6, here.
Staff Sgt. Rebecca Adney, an instructor with the MTT from 3rd Battalion, 6th ADA Regt., who has held the MOS 14T for the last 13 and a half years, said she thinks the three-week course is a better option than the 10-week course.
“(Soldiers) have to go through this (training) to be (MOS qualified), so it’s better for them to go through this three-week class then to have to …go through the 10-week class,” Adney said. “They get a crash course of what they get (at Fort Sill) and it’s a lot quicker.”
Adney said the three-week course is also better for Soldiers who have been in the Army for a few years.
“It’s a different aspect when you come here and teach Soldiers who’ve actually been in the military for a little bit longer and it’s good to actually teach these guys their job,” she said. “Now they actually get to go out there and know their jobs, especially the (noncommissioned officers).”
One of the students, Staff Sgt. Terrance Mackey, an air and missile defense crew member with Battery B, 1st Bn., 62nd ADA Regt., is a platoon sergeant, who oversees many different MOSs, and said the MTT will help him he a better leader.
“It’ll give me a better aspect while leading Soldiers and (help me) train my Soldiers to the standard,” the Houston, Texas, native, said.
In addition to making him a better leader, Mackey said the job swap is allowing him to complete the final six years of his enlistment and retire in the branch of the Army to which he has dedicated the last 13 and a half years of his life.
“The (air defense artillery branch is) cutting our MOS in half, so they gave us the option to (reclassify) into an MOS within the branch,” said Mackey, adding that Patriot launching station enhanced operator/maintainer is one of the closest occupations to his current job.
Some of the things taught in the MTT course are how to power up the launching station, run the Launching Station Test Set (LSTS) and the Missile Round Test Set (MRTS), and perform maintenance on the equipment, Adney said.
Three of the biggest things taught during training are march order, which is packing up the launching equipment for movement to another site, emplacement, which is setting up the launching equipment and getting it ready to fire, and missile reload.
After three weeks of learning, studying and practicing crew drills, the students graduated the course.
For the graduation, the commander and command sergeant major of 3rd Bn., 6th ADA Regt., traveled here to give the graduates of the course their certificates of completion.
Out of the 20 Soldiers who attended the MTT, 13 were from 69th ADA Bde., while the rest were from units including 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, and III Corps.
Regardless of unit, all of the students earned a new MOS and a new perspective of the air defense artillery branch.
| Date Taken: | 02.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.09.2015 12:59 |
| Story ID: | 154018 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Hometown: | HOUSTON, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 379 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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